Series on Fallout From King Case

In your article regarding the shooting of Arturo Jimenez by an L.A. sheriff’s deputy in the Ramona Gardens housing project (“Deputies’ Credibility Took a Beating at Latino Project” front page, Dec. 20), the reporter asserts that Jimenez was unarmed at the time of the shooting. Jimenez was, in fact, armed with a deputy’s flashlight, which can be considered a deadly weapon when used to strike someone in the head. Jimenez had already struck the deputy at least once in the head with the flashlight, which resulted in the deputy’s hospitalization with severe head injuries. After ignoring warnings to drop the flashlight, Jimenez was fatally shot. Autopsy results later showed that Jimenez was under the influence of PCP, alcohol, marijuana and traces of cocaine at the time of the incident. The story failed to mention any of these facts.

The use of the term victim to describe Jimenez is misguided. The victims in this case were the deputies involved in this tragic incident.

This incident is by no means comparable to LAPD’s Rodney King incident. The fact that the same grand jury that indicted four LAPD officers refused to indict the deputies involved in this incident confirms this.

KEVIN NELSON, Fontana